Throughout December 2018 and on into January I spent six weeks at Whittington Press in Gloucestershire while the pages of my book Coastline were printed by Pat and Anna of Nomad Letterpress. After two years of engraving, writing and planning how it was all going to fit together, I arrived with boxes of linocuts (90 individual blocks) ready for mounting. The printshop was cold (although not cold enough for a few queen bees to come out of hibernation) but the kettle was always on and there seemed to be a steady supply of oranges or biscuits since Christmas was just around the corner.

Not everything went to plan; we spent the first two weeks feeling quite stressed that many of the larger engravings were stretching under the pressure of the Heidelburg. And I ran out of time at the end and will be completing the pochoir stencilling from my (new) home in Los Angeles. But there were triumphs... Particularly the delicate colour palette, some very nice Kabel headings (designed by Rudolph Koch) and our natural Japanese book cloth (found after many days of searching high and low). The result is something special and I’m really proud of the book we’ve made. The sheets are now with the binder, Roger Grech and the first copies will be going out to those who pre-ordered them very soon.

Below are some photos from those six busy weeks of printing and pochoir stencilling, taken by my husband Luke.

To celebrate the launch of pre-orders for my book (Coastline) later this week I’m giving away a Big Sur test-print to one newsletter subscriber!

All you have to do is sign up to my newsletter on the homepage of my site HERE

Or scroll to the bottom of this post.

The winner will be picked on Wednesday 17th October at 12pm and will be notified by email.

Read more information about my book Coastline, filled with linocuts inspired by the California coast, on my homepage.

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If you have any questions about how to enter or would like more information on this prize draw, please email hannahcousins@icloud.com

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T&Cs: Winner will be selected at random. The winner will receive one unframed Big Sur test-print (image above). One entry per person. No purchase necessary. No cash alternative available. No alternative prizes available. Prize draw closes at 11:59 GMT on 17 October 2018. The winner will be notified by email on or after 17 October 2018 and given details of how to receive their prize. If a winner does not respond within 14 days of being notified of their win, the prize will be forfeited and another winner will be selected at random.

One grey Saturday morning, a few weeks ago Irina and Silviu of Together and Sunspell visited me at my studio and we had a lovely chat about artwork, process, travel and my upcoming book 'Coastline', among many other things. To read the full interview click the link below...